Philippines Earthquake
The 7.2-magnitude earthquake, which so far has more than 150 fatalities and heavily damaged well-known landmarks in entral !isayas, would go down in history as among the country"s deadliest quakes and the second most #owerful in the 21st century. The deadliest and strongest quake recorded is the 7.$-magnitude midnight shocker in %indanao in &ugust 1', 1$7'. (t triggered a tsunami in the %oro )ulf that swe#t through more than '00 kilometers from the coastline and claimed over *,500 lives. & 7.+-magnitude quake struck ,u-on in .uly 1', 1$$0 and devastated the cities of /aguio, 0agu#an and a1anatuan. The remains of destroyed structures can still 1e seen today, most nota1le of which was the 2yatt Terraces and the /aguio 3ark 2otel. 4(t was said to 1e the most destructive earthquake on record within the ordillera 5egion. There were numerous aftershocks that followed and the strongest, which occurred at 6715 a.m. of .uly 1+, lasted for eight seconds and measured 5.6 on the 5icher scale,4 recalled .uny ,a 3utt, a 8ili#ino living in 2awaii. ,a 3utt frequented /aguio and documented the quake"s aftermath. (n 9ovem1er 60, 1'*5, the %anila athedral and other newly-1uilt churches in %anila were severely damaged 1y a 7.5 quake in ,u-on--the strongest recorded trem1lor since the :#aniards set foot on what would 1ecome the 3hili##ine islands.:tructural engineers ,eonila and /artolome /autista wrote that no earthquake was felt for *0 years 1efore it that residents constructed 4tall, s#acious and #alatial4 homes--150 of which colla#sed during the 1'*5 earthquake. laiming over 270 lives, the earthquake that shook asiguran, &urora in &ugust 2, 1$'+, affecting even the ur1ani-ed %anila and caused the colla#se of ma;or 1uildings in /inondo and <scolta.4This was considered the most severe and destructive earthquake e=#erienced in the 3hili##ines during the last 20 years,4 some .a#anese scholars wrote in a >9<: ? ;ournal in the 1$'0s.The recent /ohol quake can 1e considered the fifth worst seism that rocked the country as it registered 7.2 in the 5ichter scale.
